XTC - Discography Hagiogarphy Part 2

  by Tommy Gunnarsson

published: 19 / 12 / 2024

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Article

MUMMER (1983) Having lost their drummer during the recording sessions for this, the band’s sixth studio album, left a vacant space in their line-up, and Dave Gregory soon suggested that they hire Pete Phipps (formerly of the Gary Glitter Band, and later also with bands like Eurythmics and Denim) as a temporary replacement. A month later, in November 1982, Phipps joined the band in the Manor Studio and together they recorded the rest of what would eventually be called ‘Mummer’. As the band was no longer a touring unit, they could be more experimental and complex in their song arrangements, which spurred Partridge to write a bunch of songs while he recovered from his recent nervous breakdown. The creativity also came with a cost, and Virgin thought that the band was being a bit too experimental and non-commercial, also saying that the album didn’t have any potential singles, which lead to several re-workings of the songs (with the band finally telling Virgin that they wouldn’t provide any more songs, and they were sick to death of the album). Eventually, three singles would be released from the album – ‘Great Fire’, ‘Wonderland’ and ‘Love on a Farmboy’s Wages’ – where the latter would climb to #50 in the UK singles chart. The production on ‘Mummer’ was originally handled by Steve Nye, who had previously worked with Japan on their iconic ‘Tin Drum’ album back in 1981, and listening to album you can hear that he has a thing for keyboards, which isn’t really XTC for me. The aforementioned single ‘Wonderland’ is a good example here, with a keyboard driven 80s production that doesn’t really make you think of the Pride of Swindon. All in all, ‘Mummer’ isn’t XTC’s finest hour, but there are still some really good songs here, like the aforementioned ‘Love on a Farmboy’s Wages’. THE BIG EXPRESS (1984) The commercial failure of ‘Mummer’ made the band re-evaluate their sound and how they should go on, before recording their seventh studio album. In the meantime, the three remaining XTC members decided to record a one-off holiday single, ‘Thanks for Christmas’, and it was eventually released under the name Three Wise Men (this is also the only song in the XTC catalogue where Andy and Colin share the lead vocals!). Producing the single was David Lord, a Bath based producer who had previously worked with Peter Gabriel and Tears for Fears (he produced their debut single ‘Suffer the Children’ in 1981), and he apparently impressed the band enough for them to enlist him as a producer for what would become ‘The Big Express’. A lot of the criticism for ‘Mummer’ had been about the band not sounding modern enough, so for the new album, XTC tried to modernise themselves in their own way. This resulted in an autobiographical concept album about the railway system in Swindon, and the Swindon Works, the big railway maintenance centre that was located in the band’s hometown (Andy actually wrote all songs except 2 on the album, which is unusual). Pete Phipps once again handled the drums during the recording sessions, and this would also be the first time that the band used samplers and synth drums, but also the Mellotron, which gives some of the songs here an almost psychedelic feel (I guess it makes sense that Partridge, Moulding and Gregory would soon release their first 60s psych album as The Dukes of Stratosphear). All band members have been talking about the album and its recording sessions in a negative way ever since it came out, mostly thinking that the album was ‘overproduced’ and feeling that they stopped playing as a band because of the use of synth drums and samplers. And even though the album has been re-evaluated by the fans over the years, it was even more a commercial failure than ‘Mummer’ when it came out and peaked at #38 in album charts. The singles didn’t sell any better, with lead single ‘All You Pretty Girls’ peaking at #55. SKYLARKING (1986) After recording and releasing the aforementioned debut mini-album by The Dukes of Stratosphear, ’25 O’Clock’, on April Fool’s Day in 1985 (it actually sold way more than ‘The Big Express’ in the UK, even before it was known that the band was actually a pseudonym for XTC), the band needed to make a new album that would please their label, as they threatened to throw the band out if the next record didn’t sell more 70 000 copies. The label also thought XTC sounded “too English”, and therefor suggested that they should work with a US producer. From the list they were given of different alternatives, the only one that the members had heard of was Todd Rundgren, and Gregory persuaded his band mates to go with him. Much have been spoked and written about the strained relationship between Partridge and Rundgren, so I won’t go into it more here, but let’s just say that the two didn’t get along at all. Later on, Partridge admitted that Rundgren was a great arranger, but a crap engineer and producer. ‘Skylarking’ is often said to be XTC’s finest hour, and it’s not hard to agree with that, even though I would place ‘English Settlement’ and ‘Drums and Wires’ at the top as well. It’s definitely influenced by the same 60s psychedelia that made them record the Dukes album, but there are also more Beatles-y pop here, which in a way makes it their most accessible album to date, an influence that would become even more evident on the next XTC album. ‘Skylarking’ also contained Andy’s most controversial song, ‘Dear God’ (it wasn’t actually on the original pressings but was added after it suddenly became a minor US college radio hit as the B-side to the ‘Grass’ single), which caused a real stir at the time, with a US radio station even receiving a bomb threat for playing it. The anti-religious lyrics can probably be a mouthful for a Christian believer, but to me they are nothing short of brilliant. Andy himself has said that he wasn’t really pleased with the way the lyrics turned out, as they didn’t really reflect his own views on religion, but despite this, ‘Dear God’ is probably one of their best-known songs, hopefully for the right reason. ‘Skylarking’ would later be reissued by Partridge, on his APE House label, in 2010, after it was discovered that the original album had been released with incorrect sound polarity, which affected the overall feel and sound of the album. The issue was solved, and the new master was released on vinyl only at first, with the originally proposed artwork for the album, and later also on CD. This really is a brilliant album, and its place in the XTC canon is well deserved! ORANGES AND LEMONS (1989) After once again revisiting the Dukes of Stratosphere moniker on the album ‘Psonic Psunspot’ in 1987, XTC began rehearsing new songs for album #11 in early 1988. A writer’s block that struck Andy after the recording of ‘Skylarking’ suddenly disappeared, and the songs came flooding out, which was part of the reason why they also managed to write and record the Dukes album and have enough songs for ‘Oranges and Lemons’, which would eventually become the band’s second double album (after ‘English Settlement’). Once again, XTC opted to go to the US to record the album, this time with Paul Fox as producer, and with Mr Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto sitting in behind the drum kit. Keeping with the style that they had adopted on the previous album, ‘Oranges and Lemons’ are heavily influenced by 60s pop and psychedelic pop, with some Beatles and Beach Boys thrown in here and there, but there are also hints of samba (‘Poor Skeletons Step Out’), jazz (‘Miniature Sun’) and 80s mainstream rock (‘Merely a Man’). My own personal favourite here is definitely ‘Mayor of Simpleton’, a brilliant jangly tune with a killer bass line by Colin (although it was actually written by Andy). This was probably one of the first songs I ever heard by XTC as well, and I remember buying a second hand copy of the single sometime in the mid-90s. When promoting the album in the US (which had suddenly emerged as XTC’s prime market), the band chose to do a few live appearances on TV, playing live for the first time in seven years, including spots on the David Letterman Show and the Weird Al Show (for some reason). ‘Oranges and Lemons’ would go on to be their biggest selling album since ‘English Settlement’ (maybe they should have been solely double albums?), peaking at #28 in the UK and #44 in the US (and #31 here in Sweden!). But it would take three years before we heard of XTC again… NONSUCH (1992) After releasing and promoting ‘Oranges and Lemons’ the band took some time out to focus on other projects; Andy produced The Lilac Time’s second album, Colin played in a short-lived band with former XTC member Barry Andrews, and Dave played with such diverse acts as Johnny Hates Jazz and Marc Almond. By 1991, Andy and Colin had written more than 30 songs for their 10th album, but Virgin didn’t think they were good enough, and urged them to write new ones. Thankfully, the label got soon got a new director who liked the songs, and finally the recordings could be initiated. After asking a bunch of different producers (like former collaborators Steve Lillywhite and Hugh Padgham, who were both busy with other projects), the finally settled on Elton Johns former producer Gus Dudgeon. And this time they wanted to record the album back home in the UK, mostly because they didn’t want to be away from their families for too long. Oh, they got a new drummer, of course. This time, they enlisted the skills of Dave Mattacks, mostly known for his work with Fairport Convention, but who also played on Nick Drake’s ‘Bryter Layter’, for instance. ‘Nonsuch’ has been described as a ‘dark’ and ‘political’ album, where the latter is probably due to songs like ‘War Dance’, which is about the then ongoing Gulf War, and ‘The Ugly Underneath’, which takes a jab at politicians in general. But at the same time, it’s really accessible, and the sound isn’t far from that on the previous two albums, even though ‘Nonsuch’ might be a bit more straightforward production wise. There are some really good songs here, like the nice ballad ‘Rook’ (apparently Andy’s favourite song on the album), ‘Holly Up on Polly’ (which is about Holly, Andy’s daughter, and her rocking horse Polly) and single track ‘Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead’. The album was to be XTC’s final top 40 hit in the UK, peaking at #28 (it was released as a double vinyl album in the UK, so the chart position was probably because of that). As a third single, the band suggested ‘Wrapped in Grey’, and Virgin started manufacturing the CD singles, but then suddenly withdrew it, as they didn’t think it would be a hit. This made the band so angry that they refused to record any more records for Virgin, even though they were still under contract. This meant that it would take seven years before we heard of the band again, and by then Virgin was out of the picture… APPLE VENUS, VOL 1 (1999) After ending their boycott against Virgin Records, the band finally managed to break free from their contract in 1997, and instead opted to release their next album on their own, on the new label Idea Records. As it had been many years since their last record, both songwriters had written lots of songs for potential inclusion on the new album, and they eventually settled for 11 songs that they had written between 1992 and 1994, nine by Partridge and two by Moulding. Of all the songs they had written since the last album, it would turn out to that they would either be orchestral or more rock based, and even though most of the band members wanted to reduce them all down to a single album, Partridge really wanted it to be two separate albums, which meant that they decided to release the orchestral songs as ‘volume one’, and the rock songs as ‘volume two’. During the recording of ‘Apple Venus’, which took place in 1998, Gregory suddenly had enough of Partridge and his way of controlling the band. He was especially frustrated with Andy’s decision to spend most of the album’s budget on a 40-piece orchestra (which was record during a one-day session at the Abbey Road Studios), and it all escalated to a row in the studio, where Gregory later said that Partridge behaved ‘like a c*nt, frankly’. So, suddenly, XTC was stripped down to a duo, and when the album was finally released, Andy told journalists that he no longer saw XTC as a band, but more as a brand to cover the songs written by him and Moulding. Okay, so besides the battles within and outside the band, what did their big ‘comeback album’ (though Partridge hated that word, as he said they never went away) sound like? Well, Andy’s decision to use a full orchestra is prominently heard already on the album opener, ‘River of Orchids’, and can then be heard on more or less every song, like ‘Easter Theatre’ and ‘Greenman’, but actually considerably less on Moulding’s two songs, ‘Frivolous tonight’ and ‘Fruit nut’, where the latter instead uses a harmonica to keep the beat, a bit like the old 60s ska songs. This is a really good album, and it was definitely worth waiting for all those years! WASP STAR (APPLE VENUS, VOL 2) (2000) And luckily, we didn’t have to wait that long for the next XTC album, which was released just over a year later, in May 2000. Andy said it was the ‘eclectric counterpart’ to the previous album, ‘Apple Venus’, and therefor XTC’s 14th studio album was titled ‘Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol 2)’. As I mentioned earlier, the original plan was to release the Apple Venus project as a single release, but in the end, Andy got what he wanted, and it was separated into two albums, and this second one was recorded after the release of the first, during the summer and autumn of 1999. The album consists of 12 songs written between 1994 and 1996, and this time around Colin managed to get three songs on the final track listing; ‘In another life’, ‘Boarded up’ and ‘Standing in for Joe’. Already on the opening track, ‘Playground’ (which contains the brilliant lyric ‘you may leave school, but it never leaves you’), you can hear that this is the ‘rock album’, with lots of guitars and loud drums. And this is basically how it goes, with Colin’s three contributions being a bit more acoustic than Andy’s, and all in all the album isn’t that far off from that they did just before they went on their Virgin strike, with comparisons being made with both ‘Skylarking’ and ‘Nonesuch’. There are definitely some brilliant songs here, and it’s such a shame that these two final albums aren’t officially available digitally (at least not at the time of writing this). ‘Wasp Star’ would prove to be the final album recorded by XTC, even though there were some “new” songs released here and there, like the re-recorded ‘Nonesuch’ demo ‘Didn’t hurt a bit’, which was released on the rarities box set ‘Coat of Many Cupboards’ in 2002, and later also two more new songs on the ‘Apple Box’ in 2005. In 2002, Andy and Colin began releasing albums consisting of demos and other recorded material under the ‘Fuzzy Warbles’ flag. After a few volumes, Colin decided to leave the project, as he thought that it went on for too long. In the end, 8 volumes were released, and they were later collected in a 9 disc box set in 2006. The big reason for Andy to do this was to prevent bootleggers to earn money from their recordings. The same year, 2006, Andy lost contact with Colin, and two years later he said that he believed that the musical partnership with Colin had come to an end ‘for reasons too personal and varied to go into here’. So, that’s it for XTC then, is it? Well, yes. There’s no hint of any kind of reunion, and both Andy and Colin seem to be very uninterested in that idea. For years they weren’t even on speaking terms and communicated only through email when they had to with regards to the XTC business side. But let’s not end this on a low note, and instead remember this marvellous band for all the amazing songs they recorded and released for our pleasure. XTC was truly one of a kind, and they continue to get new fans all the time. So, if you’re new to them – congratulations!

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